Obake is a great Mario type 2D platform scrolling game. The game was written in Japanese, so the signs and much of the story will be hard to understand (unless you read Japanese). Luckily the game is very enjoyable even without understanding everything the game designer intended. The basic idea is that you are a ghost that is able to take the form, and thus the abilities, of any enemy you meet. When in the form of the ghost you can move right and left and jump. If you land directly on top of an enemy, you can transform into the enemy, taking over his body. You then have all of the abilities of that enemy until you take enough hits to turn back into the ghost or choose to turn back into the ghost voluntarily.
What makes this game great is the multitude of enemy types and abilities, as well as the superb level design. There are many levels grouped into several worlds. Completing a level allows you to move on to the next level, but getting through a level once does not mean you are done with that level. You can always go back to play a level again, and if you want to complete the enitre game, you must replay levels. There are "G" icons hidden throughout the levels, all of which must be found in order to unlock the final levels of the game. The only way to accomplish that is to revisit levels with new enemy abilities that were not available the first time through. Some levels are like puzzles that must be solved in order to get through, while others are more of a challenge to the skill of your fingers; jumping, shooting, moving and stopping at the right times. It is a good mix of relatively easy levels, with a little work any level can be conquered even by beginners. And although you can die, the game does save your progress automatically, and there are plenty of extra lives to be gotten when the going gets rough.
The controls are fairly simple. The arrows and spacebar are used to navigate the menus. In the game the left and right arrows move left and right, z fires (or other ability depending on form), x jumps, c changes back to ghost from an enemy form and the down arrow or z will change the ghost into an enemy when the ghost is on top of the enemy. The spacebar pauses the game and shows the current abilities and the c exits the level if it has already been completed. After defeating the final boss (before unlocking extra levels) you get the option to start any level as any enemy you have already become by pressing the x at the level selection screen. You can quit the game with q,
One annoying thing about the game is quitting. On one of my computers it gives an error every time I quit, but all I have to do is press enter to close the error message and go back to the desktop. Not a major problem and well worth the trouble given how great the game is. Also, I got no errors on my other computer setup.
Reviewed by TheTopPop